Day Trips- Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park 2

After boating the Cowan creek we did some scenic look out points and a few hikes.

On our way to see Aboriginal rock engravings

I think this is a man traced

and a fish

Walking to a new look out point

The trail to the aboriginal red hand cave paintings...we never finished the hike due to the large amount of spiders everywhere.

Day Trips- Reptile Park

On the way to The Entrance we stopped by reptile park. I was impressed with the way the park was set up. It really felt like you were walking through the jungle to see some animals and everything was all natural.

Day Trips-The Entrance

We have ventured on another day trip with the family (we are shooting for every other day). This time we went to The Entrance (about 45 minutes north). The Entrance is located in the central coast and is known as the pelican capitol of the world. The name derives from the description. There is a small "entrance" where boats can come in from the ocean to trade goods etc... Below are some pictures of us stopping off at Tuggerah lake. There were docs everywhere with no none around and so we got some pictures. It was quite cloudy but very serene.

After stopping off at the lake we went to the actual entrance where the ocean meets the land and had pizza on the beach.

Stan used to drive up to Newcastle while consulting for a project and would pass through here. He always wanted to stop by so we finally got the opportunity!

Day Trips- Royal National Park

Due to the flooding in Queensland (read previous post) we have decided to embark on local day trips with all our free time. Today we went to the Royal National Park. It is Australia first National Park and second in the world (Yellowstone in the USA being the first).

This was our first time here and personally I liked it better than the blue mountains. It was beautiful! In addition, it is a shorter distance to drive (45 mins compared to 90 mins) but in a different direction from the blue mountains (south). Due to the kids, we kept the hiking to a minimum and still the park greatly exceeded our expectations. Here are a few pictures of what we found.

First, after a short hike through rain forest to a beautiful lookout, we drove to a fresh water lagoon with a waterfall. It was right by the ocean and the only thing separating the lagoon from the ocean was a small sand bar.

To the beach!

Almost there...see the sandbar?

My boys...too cute!

Crossing the sand bar

Thomas who still can't smile for the camera

Mary was quite adventurous jumping off the rocks!

The water was actually blue, but it looks yellow in this shallow area due to the sand and no blue sky!

Olivia saw quite a few fish with her new snorkel set from Christmas

Stan and Miss Mary

I am kicking my self for not getting a group shot under the waterfall so the picture below is off the internet :-( but that is what it looked like!
We were swimming away from the falls and closer to the sea, it is kind of deep by the waterfall!

It was about to rain but the sand was warm so I had the kids bury me

After finding the lagoon we drove around to some beautiful look outs!

and did a few quick hikes with the kids

When Stan left PwC his team bought him an Akubra hat as a parting gift. They are authentic Australian (the word derives from the aborigines) and over time the inside of the hat molds to the shape of the wearers head. Different from a cow boy hat (as the front tips more down) but similar idea; usually people in the bush wear them to protect themselves from the sun. I guess that makes Stan a little closer to being Aussie?

Australian Flooding

This week we were supposed to be in Cairns (up by the great barrier reef) for our one trip this Christmas break. Luckily we got a full refund and are staying put in Sydney as most of Queensland is flooded. Reports are the size of the flood is as big or bigger than Europe (yes, all the British aisles, France etc...) You are probably thinking NO -Way! Just remember Australia is the same size as the USA and Queensland is about 1/5th of the country! In addition, reports are that the damage will be greater to Australia than what Hurricane Katrina was to the USA. Why? Because Queensland is where all the crops and coal mines are. On the bright side, at least a lot of people have not died...as there are just not a lot of people in Australia (USA: 300 Million vs Oz: 30 Million--and like I said before about the same size of land). Here are some pix!

This dam overflowing is interesting. Queensland built a lot of dams over the last 7 years which during a drought and everyone below them had little water for crops, it was a huge debate. This year we are having record rain fall (flooding in January) and the wet season ends in March. Here is a map of the flooded areas...note this map was almost three weeks ago, Brisbane is more or less evacuated now--everything has spread!

Luckily for us, Sydney is protected (if the flooding area continues downward) as we are surrounded by the blue mountains...there is no way the blue mountains will flood, it is like Yellowstone!

Queensland has lots of snakes and salt water crocks, and sharks...so you can imagine the problems when the rivers flood and locals walk through it!

Bull Shark (pretty big) and aggressive to humans; swimming down the street in Brisbane.